About Toy Biz.MarvelIn 1987 Steven Lebensfeld co-founded Toy Biz with associates from HG Toys. Within a year of its start, Toy Biz held the exclusive license for action figures based on characters from Marvel comics and DC Comics, including Batman, Spiderman and Superman.
``We were instantly the largest action figure company in the market. It was unbelievable,'' said Lebensfeld, who came up with the idea for the comic book figures after seeing a void in the market. ``Here we were, a little company doing about $4 million in sales a year when we get this incredible license. Today, those licenses bring in $300 million to $400 million in sales a year.
In 1990, the thriving Toy Biz was bought by an mogul Ron Perelman - who had acquired the Marvel Entertainment Group in January of 1989.
April 1993: Perelman cut an unusual deal with Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad, two Israeli immigrants who run Toy Biz. They got a perpetual license to make toys based on Marvel characters (4700 characters!) without paying any royalties; and Marvel got 46% of highly profitable Toy Biz.
Toy Biz, now a division of Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: MVL), one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies.

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Marvel Drops Toy Biz and Switches to HasbroMarvel terminated its licensing agreement with Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd. on December 31, 2005, one year earlier than the license's scheduled termination date. In 2006, Marvel-branded action figures and other toys formerly produced by Toy Biz Worldwide will be produced by Marvel.